Fair labor activists across the globe are continuing to pressure Apple to do more to improve working conditions and labor standards in China. Despite Apple's efforts to make its suppliers adhere to its own supplier "code of conduct," activists in the US and China believe Apple could use just a small portion of its massive profits to make meaningful change.

Factories in China pump out hundreds of thousands of iPhones, iPads, and Macs annually—indeed, China is responsible for manufacturing a vast majority of consumer electronics and other products sold here in the US. Stories of poor working conditions, labor law violations, and widespread environmental contamination are nothing new, but have gained more attention lately thanks to increased mainstream media coverage.

Apple's rise to become one of the most valuable and profitable companies in the world has put an increasingly intense spotlight on the company's efforts—or some say lack thereof—to improve conditions in the factories that make its products. A particularly scathing report by The New York Times published in January highlighted the human cost involved in producing hit products like the iPad.

"We've known about labor abuses in some factories for four years, and they’re still going on," one former Apple executive reportedly told NYT. "Why? Because the system works for us. Suppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn't have another choice."

Apple CEO Tim Cook took offense to the characterization in the report that Apple cares little about the welfare of workers at its suppliers' factories.

"Any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us," Cook wrote in an e-mail to Apple employees. "As you know better than anyone, accusations like these are contrary to our values. It’s not who we are."

Since a 2006 investigation into reports of Chinese labor law violations at Foxconn—one of Apple's main suppliers—the company has instituted annual audits of said suppliers. Apple now releases reports of these audits to the public every year, highlighting issues it finds with child labor, forced overtime, and lack of safety training and equipment. The company says it cuts repeat offenders from its supply chain and works with problem suppliers to clean up their act.

Apple announced in January that in addition to its own audits, it will open its suppliers to audits by the Fair Labor association as well. While its suppliers don't always come out looking squeaky clean, Apple's code of conduct and yearly audits have apparently resulted in some improvements.

"Although I know that the iPhone 4 is made at sweat shop factories in China, I still think that this is the only choice, because Apple is actually one of the best [manufacturers]," activist Li Qiang, founder of China Labor Watch, told Laptop Magazine in a recent interview. "I compared Apple with other cell phone companies, such as Nokia, and the conditions in those factories are worse than the ones of Apple."

In fact, Foxconn, which has taken a public relations beating over a rash of worker suicides and recent explosions that killed four employees and injured another 77, is reportedly one of the better places to work. According to China Labor Watch interviews, workers reported receiving health and safety training, noted that equipment was regularly inspected for safety, and said a workers' trade union and hotline was available to report problems.

"Foxconn is not good," Li told NYT. "But if we compare all industries, electronics, textile, toys, Foxconn is one of the best."

Foxconn also pays its factory workers nearly 20 percent more than the national average wages, and in some cases nearly double the local average, according to journalist Peter Nowak. Salaries are around just $420 month—a far cry from what we expect in America, but far more than those living in China's poverty-stricken rural areas could ever hope to earn.

The reality is that the economics in China and the US have created a situation that makes it nearly impossible for Apple or any other company to simply dump Chinese OEMs. The vast majority of electronic components are produced in China, making it logistically more affordable to have entire gadgets assembled in factories just down the street from where the components are made.

Merely importing the components and having them assembled by local workers isn't always an option, either. In addition to increased labor costs, companies have logistics, timing, and tax issues to confront. Raspberry Pi Foundation, a UK-based charity producing $25 PCs for education, recently complained that trying to build its computers locally instead of in Taiwan would have been nearly impossible. In addition to cutting the charity's income significantly due to inconsistent import taxes, manufacturing in the UK would also would have turned its time to manufacture from three weeks to three months.

Apple isn't alone is dealing with the reality of manufacturing in China. Computers, mobile phones, and other devices from HP, Dell, Samsung, Nokia, and others come from the same factories. But Li and others argue that Apple's stature and nearly $100 billion in the bank could be used to make serious, tangible improvements for workers in China.

"Although we think Apple is among the best in terms of auditing, we still think that Apple can do more because it is the most profitable company in the world," Li said. He believes that Apple could make a difference by shaving just 2 percent from its astronomical profit margins. "As soon as Apple is willing to give a small percentage of its profits, the workers can benefit a lot. But Apple is not willing to do that."

Two groups in the US are hoping to pressure Apple to do just that, though. Representatives from Change.org and SumOfUs.org have been delivering petitions with over a quarter million signatures to Apple Stores around the world on Thursday, including the Grand Central location in New York and Stockton Street in San Francisco, as well as stores in London, Sydney, Bangalore, and Washington, DC. The petitions ask Apple to improve worker conditions in China and make the next iPhone the first "ethically produced" device on the market.

"I want to continue to use and love the products you make, because they’re changing the world, and have already changed my life," Mark Shields, an Apple user from Washington, DC that started the Change.org petition drive, wrote. "But I also want to know that when I buy products from you, it’s not at the cost of horrible human suffering."

"I use an iPhone myself," Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, executive director of SumOfUs, said in a statement. "I love it, but I don't love having to support sweatshops. That's why our members are asking Apple to clean up its supply chains in time to make the iPhone 5 its first ethically produced product."

That change probably won't come in time for the next iPhone, or maybe even for the model after that. Chinese manufacturing has been a boon to the country's economy, and regulators often look the other way or auditors accept bribes to report good conditions to keep the factories open. But where Apple leads, consumer electronics companies often follow. Perhaps Cook will be willing to ease up on his legendary ability to extract lower prices from Apple's suppliers in order to improve working conditions further.

Most observers acknowledge that the problem isn't Apple's alone to solve. Our consumer culture, which demands ever-cheaper gadgets, has a trickle-down effect. When we demand cheaper iPhones and MacBook Airs, Apple will pressure its suppliers for cheaper components and assembly costs. Factory owners pass the cost cutting down to the factory floor, paying lower wages and cutting corners on safety. The issue of labor conditions in China will only be solved with pressure from a wider swath of consumers of all types of products as well as policies that make the current practices in China unprofitable.